I'm sure I am not the first to mention some issues with this route but I feel compelled to bring it up anyway. There are multiple issues with the LIRR in TSW2 (some of which were continued from TSW1) including some that break the game. I'll jump right in. MAJOR SOUND BUG / SCENARIO Change at Jamaica - beginning of scenario, you wait on platform for your loco to arrive. When it pulls into the station more than half the time there is no sound from the electric motors. When you take over the train to start the scenario, the bug persists where you'll have no electric motor sound with acceleration or braking for the entirety of the run. I have sometimes corrected this glitch by saving and reloading a save game once I am the driver. MINOR BUG / SCENARIO Change at Jamaica - I am not sure what happened between TSW1 and 2 but if you have ATC OFF, you can easily ram a train just ahead of you stopped at Kew Gardens (your first stop of the scenario). As you exit the Jamaica interlocking there is a dwarf approach medium signal ( / over | or yellow over green) that would usually imply a track switch, then with short notice you suddenly get an approach signal because the train ahead is stopped at Kew Gardens. When ATC is ON, it appropriately warns you to slow down ahead of time. BUG / SCENARIO Change at Jamaica - The timetable for this scenario is completely unrealistic if you play with ATC ON -- as you approach Hunterspoint Avenue near Sunnyside Yard, ATC limits you to 15mph long in advance of a 15mph track speed restriction (which was 30 previously). You coast along at 15mph for about a mile and there are no signals or track switches dictating otherwise. Even if you are making perfect time leaving Woodside, you cannot reach Hunterspoint on-time if you follow ATC cab signals. Obviously 15mph restricting speed is appropriate near the station and going into Long Island City, but doesn't make sense where it activates. MINOR BUG / ROUTE Sunnyside interlocking area - when traveling toward Penn Station, shortly after leaving Woodside to enter the large Sunnyside interlocking area you are at 45mph going down a curved grade. When you reach the bottom of the grade, there is a sudden 30mph track speed limitation imposed, usually regardless if you are switching tracks or not where the speed would otherwise be appropriate. There is no signal warning of a track change (slow clear __ over | or red over green) which would be normal for this. ATC gives you no warning either. This has been there since TSW1. The game will tell you to slow from 45 to 30mph with about <50 yards notice, but before that it is telling you of a planned 60mph speed increase about 400yards ahead so you aren't expecting another slowdown. There are no signs either. Unless you have run the route so much you slow anyway, you'll get overspeed penalty easily. MAJOR BUG / SCENARIO Race Day Run [**GAMEBREAKING**] - Game breaking issue new from the port to TSW2 - when you are nearing Hempstead yard/station toward end of scenario, just after the double track converges to the curved single track there is a westbound AI train sitting there blocking the single track leading into the yard. You cannot pass because it is single track and therefore cannot complete the scenario. It appears this train is stuck in that position from the beginning of the scenario and there is no variable or change the player can make to avoid this AI train from being stuck on that crucial section of two-way single track. You currently cannot complete this scenario in TSW MINOR BUG / SCENARIO & TIMETABLE Eastbound into Hicksville - since TSW1, as you are approaching Hicksville station you will be at around 60mph maximum track speed. Regardless of ATC being on or off, you will be preparing to slow down on approach to the station but there is a unsignaled and unsigned track switch outside the station that has to be taken at 45mph or LESS. ATC will notify you of the reduction AS YOU TAKE THE SWITCH, not before. A switch like this should have a signal or warning to slow ahead of time but there is not. MINOR BUG / SCENARIO & TIMETABLE Eastbound into Hicksville - similar to the above bug and since TSW1, you have no advance warning of the 15mph speed restriction entering Hicksville station. So after you inevitably slow to around 40mph from that switch mentioned above, you will cruise along preparing to decelerate into the station when suddenly you get a speed change of 15mph with ATC with few yards notice. This forces the player to slam on the brakes while entering the station at a modest speed preparing to stop. Cab signaling should be gradually decelerating you as you approach this station as above instead of getting sudden changes causing speed penalties. MINOR BUG / Track Speed vs. ATC vs. Jamaica Interlocking - since TSW1 the speed restrictions near Jamaica are very buggy. When ATC is ON, you are appropriately given 15mph restricting speed as you enter the interlocking from either direction (perhaps not early enough when entering from eastbound side but whatever) but track speed is incorrectly reading 30mph when it would never be 30mph in that interlocking, regardless of ATC. A lot of the scenarios are timed assuming ATC OFF where you can blaze in at 30mph except right before the station. When leaving Jamaica going Eastbound, many scenarios expect you to go straight up to 30mph until you leave the interlocking but if ATC is ON you are appropriately kept to 15mph at the consequence of being late in most scenarios. MINOR BUG / SOUND of M9 Horn - volume is much less in TSW2, even with the window open. CONTENT MISSING - there are no timetable routes to or from Atlantic Terminal, no timetable routes to Belmont station, no timetable routes to "Port Washington" (Penn to Woodside) in the TSW2 version of this route like there was in TSW1. Lack of Traffic - there is practically no train traffic on this route, especially outside of scenarios. Hillside Yard is always empty except on the scenario involving it. Sunnyside Yard is always empty. Jamaica Station (which in real life almost always has 1-2 trains in either direction stopped there) is always empty outside of scenarios, and the main line between Jamaica and Penn has trains running in either direction at least every 5 mins in real life (sometimes more often plus on the express tracks too during peak rush times) and you are lucky to see one on any scenario or time table. I'm pretty sure there are other issues I have missed or haven't encountered yet in TSW2 because I have frustratingly stopped playing this route given the above issues. Anyone else that has more to add feel free to mention them here. Maybe they will get some attention considering this is a "Preserved Collection."
With regard to Race Day Run, Adam said that they cannot reproduce the problem even if several people have came across it. I found a workaround but don't know if it will work for everyone. Also, you can find services like Atlantic Terminal - Hempstead or Jamaica - Belmont by changing the train formation. They said that no more service is going to be added, but at least we are not missing any service from TSW2020. Even in TSW2020 it was like this after M3 was released.
Thanks for the info regarding a potential workaround. I will have to give it a try, though by the description it sounds like you really gotta wing it and hopefully keep to certain time entering a station. It is crazy to me this cannot be reproduced when I replayed the scenario 2 full times and the third time to confirm the bug is there from the beginning before giving up, and have seen numerous people mention it as well on reddit. Also appreciate the clarification about other services -- it is not clear at all that train formation will change the available routes. It seems kind of backwards too, like the available routes should all display and after selecting one you can choose valid formations for it which seems like how it was in TSW1 though I'd have to double check that.
As far as ATC approaching Hicksville, that sounds about right when the signal at the eastern end of Hicksville is at Stop. You enter the block with a 15 staring at you. Could also be what's happening at Hunterspoint. The signal at the end of the block may be red. As far as having no warning, welcome to ATC? If you play Metro North on Train Simulator is even worse cause you'll have almost no wayside signals. My advise is when you enter a block and your overspeed goes off, you really don't have to hard brake. Bring the brake to about 55-60% and acknowledge to shut off the alarm. Now just keep it there until you hit the target speed then release. That's for an M7. For the M3, hard brake. If you don't, you'll think you're OK then Chow! Your train bails
I'm very familiar with ATC and have played MNR on TS where I think it works the best (I joke to myself whenever I get on the LIRR how I could probably faithfully operate a M7/M9 in real life, just from playing this game). It's pretty forgiving -- like you suggested -- I know to brake to about 60% or whatever amount makes "ATC Forestall" light up on the M7's computer screen. The issue with entering the Hicksville block is that you get practically no warning about the track speed change entering the station nor the previous track speed decrement right before a switch from the right/outermost eastbound track to the "middle" eastbound track where you go from I believe a max allowed speed of 60 or 80 to suddenly 40 as you take the switch, then very shortly after you hit the sudden track speed of 15. I don't care about O/S on ATC because I can just forestall it by putting brakes into suppression or like the 60% range, but I do care about point penalties to my score from literally sudden track speed decreases when I'm going 55+mph I have to play the route again and triple check the timing, but the issue is the lack of the game warning you appropriately of the upcoming speed change. In the absence of wayside signaling or signs, the game represents "engineer route knowledge of speed changes" with upcoming speed changes counted down on the HUD. There is no countdown on the HUD for the 40mph switch and unless you're braking aggressively approaching the upcoming station (which would be a bit premature at that point) you will be closer to the prior max track speed of I think 60mph and get overspeed penalty (points wise). The second screw-up is after you take that 40mph switch, the game's HUD starts counting down yards to 60mph speed increase again LOL (we're talking like 60-70yds, so it comes fast) but in that time you are entering the station and there's no countdown warning in yards to the 15mph because it was too busy telling you of the (brief) upcoming resumption of 60mph post switch. My comment about ATC in this regard is that it should be warning you of the track switch before Hicksville ahead of time and giving you a cab signal below max track speed, which it does not (at least on the all the scenario and timetable routes I've played). The fact that it isn't even warning you of the upcoming 15mph when you enter the station block (let alone the prior 40mph track switch) does not make much sense either because if it was indeed a red signal causing this you should be warned, both with a cab speed decrease as well as a wayside "approach" signal, a "medium slow", or even a "restricting" aspect (though any NEC/LIRR employees or signal brainiacs correct me if I'm wrong on that). I don't ride the Ronkonkoma branch in real life so I don't know how the engineers maneuver here in actuality. All of the above can be solved by simply braking long before you get close to the station, but that is acquired knowledge and players shouldn't be penalized for otherwise following directions and cab signals as displayed. Your hypothesis about a red signal near LIC messing up ATC approaching Hunterspoint actually makes total sense -- someone on reddit said a signal near Hunterspoint was missing after the route was ported to TSW2 and I assume the ATC would then read the whole area as a single block and therefore restrict you to 15 very prematurely as you suggest. That issue should be addressed if so...
